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Firewire external hard drive enclosure?

B

benbridle38

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 16, 2006
24
0
I have been searching for a few weeks now for a hard drive enclosure with the following specs:

{
- SATA internal conection
- Firewire 400, 800
- Fan cooled, or better!!
- Capable of up to 1TB drive
- 3.5"
}
- USB 2.0 .... maybe

Not worried about e-Sata

So with this spec i can not find anything. Everything i find is missing just one of these requirements.. I need them all, except USB 2.0 isn't important.

Can anyone help me on my search?

if not im going to have to make my own, then sell it in this gap in the market, and make lots of money haha..

thanks
 
There are dozens of them available.

Anything with firewire 800 also come with USB 2.

Market research fail? ;p
 
I already have the internal drive, a Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB, so need a case to suit it, everyone says there are loads, but i can not find one that meets all requirments.

If there are so many, please link me?

thanks
 
Plenty of enclosures at OWC with those specs- though most that have Firewire 400+800 will probably also have USB2 and eSATA thrown in automatically, but not all.

Examples:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MEFW934AL1K/
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MEFW934AL1KS/
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MEFW912U2/
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MEFW934F8QI/

and those are just some of the OWC branded ones- all the ones they carry that have FW400+800 can be seen at this page
 
the problem is trying to get hold of these in the UK, $42 postage is a bit steep then the product is only $70 lol

but thanks for showing me some nice cases.. i now have something to look for
 
I have had an idea of buying an enclosure designed for two drives and only putting one in it..

Will this work, or does it have to have 2 drives in to work?

Will it make it run cooler, or does the drive need to have contact with head disipators on all sides? i can imagine the extra air space (were other dive should go) would increase air circulation and cause heat disipation due to convection..?

And all dual drive enclosures have fans, and more have firewire.

Just need to know if it will work or not before i buy one, any ideas?

thanks
 
I have the OWC Al dual enclosure and can confirm it works with just one drive. There aren't really heat dissipators per se. The entire case is aluminium, so it conducts heat well. Additionally, the dual Al enclosure has a fan. Not being that familiar with the Spinpoints, I think you're overestimating the amount of heat the drives will throw off and/or the effect of heat on drives, especially considering that these were designed to be housed in a warm computer case.
 
Agurri said:
Last month, I bouht a MacAlly enclosure. It's been working like a charm.
Click to expand...
I also bought this enclosure and CANNOT recommend it.

The powersupply shipped with this and other enclosures maxes out at 2 amps (2A), however many hard drives require closer to 3A to spin up reliably.

The end result is that if you use this enclosure, sometimes... the hard drive won't spin up, your Mac will lock up and you'll need to power off the drive, risking corrupting the file system and losing all your data.

It is not worth the risk. Try to find an enclosure with a 3A power supply, or make sure your hard drive consumes less than 3A total between its 12v and 5v supply.

See discussion here

And BTW, it was MacAlly who said this was the problem, yet they refuse to do anything to correct the issue. Buyer beware, it may not work with your hard drive.
 
benbridle38 said:
I have had an idea of buying an enclosure designed for two drives and only putting one in it..

Will this work, or does it have to have 2 drives in to work?

Will it make it run cooler, or does the drive need to have contact with head disipators on all sides? i can imagine the extra air space (were other dive should go) would increase air circulation and cause heat disipation due to convection..?

And all dual drive enclosures have fans, and more have firewire.

Just need to know if it will work or not before i buy one, any ideas?

thanks
Click to expand...

Hi,
I have a couple of these:

http://atlastsolutions.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=11&products_id=641

They are a bit pricey but the quality is excellent. Also the aftersales is great as I had a power adapter fail and I was sent a replacement out same day.

You can put one drive in and then add another later.

Best of all it's a UK company so no expensive P+P.

Hope that helps.
 
GlynJones said:
Hi,
I have a couple of these:

http://atlastsolutions.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=11&products_id=641

They are a bit pricey but the quality is excellent. Also the aftersales is great as I had a power adapter fail and I was sent a replacement out same day.

You can put one drive in and then add another later.

Best of all it's a UK company so no expensive P+P.

Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

This is perfect, and i want it so much, im just not sure if i can justify this price point. I put an order in for an icy dock a few weeks back now, and it still hasnt arived due to lack of stock, so im still considering.
 
dmelgar said:
I also bought this enclosure and CANNOT recommend it.

The powersupply shipped with this and other enclosures maxes out at 2 amps (2A), however many hard drives require closer to 3A to spin up reliably.

The end result is that if you use this enclosure, sometimes... the hard drive won't spin up, your Mac will lock up and you'll need to power off the drive, risking corrupting the file system and losing all your data.

It is not worth the risk. Try to find an enclosure with a 3A power supply, or make sure your hard drive consumes less than 3A total between its 12v and 5v supply.

See discussion here

And BTW, it was MacAlly who said this was the problem, yet they refuse to do anything to correct the issue. Buyer beware, it may not work with your hard drive.
Click to expand...

I posted in the thread about the Macally problems, but I wanted say something here as well, I think the WD Greens will be OK(max current draw under 2A), and the Blacks ok if 640 or 500.
 
benbridle38 said:
I put an order in for an icy dock a few weeks back now, and it still hasnt arived due to lack of stock, so im still considering.
Click to expand...

Is the IcyDock you ordered the MB559UEB1-S (Firewire 800)? If so I think you will be glad you waited for it. I bought one with a Seagate 1.5TB HD last December and it has been flawless. It is runs cool (fanless) to the touch with it's sleek aluminum case and is FAST. I can't recommend it highly enough. There's a good reason why it's backordered.

It even looks awesome next to an aluminum iMac. It looks like something Jonathan Ive might have designed for Apple. :)
 
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